Listening Beyond
The mission of Listening Beyond is to help organizations gain a deeper and wider understanding of the needs, knowledge and wisdom that exist in them. By listening to employees and other stakeholders with genuine curiosity and openness, we gain insight about the root causes of issues and become able to identify effective and long lasting solutions from the inside out.
Why communication matters so much in an organization?
As human beings living in society and being part of families, organizations and communities, we are communicating all the time and the quality with which such communication takes place has profound effects in the level of success of our relationships, our work, our businesses and life in general. Clear, transparent, pro-active and effective communication requires a high level of commitment, specific skills and deliberate efforts.
Managers and leaders in general who take upon themselves the mission to communicate frequently, openly and collaboratively with their teams tend to have teams with:
a clear sense of direction and purpose
higher engagement
higher productivity and performance
increased loyalty
higher retention
team cohesion and collaboration
creativity and innovation
higher ability to solve problems and effectively resolve conflicts
higher emotional wellbeing in the workplace
higher trust in the company’s leadership
The dangers of poor communication in an organization
When poor communication becomes the norm in an organization, issues like those below start permeating employees’ behaviors and dynamics , ultimately putting at risk the organization’s bottom line and reputation:
- a sense of insecurity in employees
- loss of trust in the company and higher management
- reduced collaboration
- low morale
- conflict (open or concealed)
- employees dissatisfaction and disengagement
When left unattended for long enough, such issues become chronic, giving way for relationships and the environment to become toxic and the system to become dysfunctional.
When left unattended for long enough, such issues become chronic, giving way for relationships and the environment to become toxic and the system to become dysfunctional.
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Within a global economy context, where competition requires constant adaptation and innovation, it is important that employees’ experience and satisfaction be a central focus of organizations.
The overall cost of turnover, particularly as concerns highly qualified professionals, goes beyond a direct dollar amount to include significant indirect costs like loss of productivity and potential missed deadlines, reduced team morale, loss of company reputation, more turnover and time investment in new recruitment, on boarding and additional training.
In organizations where collaborative communication is not part of the culture, it is not rare that managers implement corrective decisions based on assumptions, in impulsive and disorganized ways, as if putting patches on a boat that Is filling up with water, but not really knowing where the holes are. Such reactive approach can result in great waste of resources, cause delays in identifying effective and lasting solutions, intensify dysfunctionalities and further deteriorate employees’ trust in the company’s leadership and future.
Right now, your team may be dying for you to know things they may never tell you.
The method of
Listening Beyond
The implementation of solutions that are embraced by teams and hold higher chances of lasting depend on well-founded data, beyond superficial perceptions and assumptions. Snap shots of events inattentively interpreted are not well-founded data and yet frequently used as base for decisions.
Well-founded data includes facts, situations and events that can be objectively verified and properly contextualized but also includes the subjective perception of the individuals who are part of the organization about their experiences and how they perceive the experience of others around them.
Both kinds of data are essential for solutions in a collaborative culture and are at the core the Listening Beyond method.
Listen with genuine curiosity
Listening Beyond is a unique process of listening to stakeholders with a professional and moral commitment to genuine curiosity, neutrality and trust.
Find the deeper causes of problems
Listening Beyond accesses deeper meanings and a wider picture one rarely accesses in every day’s fast paced and automatic way of living, working and relating.
Strengthen a culture of collaboration
Listening Beyond gives teams the opportunity to contribute to decisions that directly impact their work life. Involving teams in solutions in collaborative ways, as behavior research shows, generates higher engagement and better performance.
our clients
We work with organizations and collective systems who understand the tight mutuality between the one and the whole and how fundamentally vital it is to create an internal culture that acknowledges and pro-actively supports the unique value and latent potential of each individual. Organizations that strive to live an authentic collaborative model.
A Listening Beyond practice in organizations, or systems in general, is particularly helpful to support transitions, crisis management, conflict resolution, or simply planned growth.
about us
Estela De Wulf is a communication and relationship professional with multidisciplinary training and career paths that have placed her in a unique position to work with a wide range of contexts and clients. From corporate clients to parents and couples.
Estela was formerly a corporate lawyer in the area of mergers and acquisitions and a non-profit top executive acting in the fields of protection and life skills education of children at social risk. She started and ran large scale programs in partnership with Governments and 500 Fortune companies, serving thousands of children.
Estela is also a certified mediator and conflict resolution facilitator and a certified executive and relationship coach, supporting individuals, families and organizations build and sustain high performance relationships, teams and system cultures.
Originally from Brazil, Estela lives in Southern California since 2011, where she has been a partner and member of the Board of Directors of Roots & Wings – Institute of Social and Emotional Learning for the Prevention of
Estela is also a certified mediator and conflict resolution facilitator and a certified executive and relationship coach, supporting individuals, families and organizations build and sustain high performance relationships, teams and system cultures.
Originally from Brazil, Estela lives in Southern California since 2011, where she has been a partner and member of the Board of Directors of Roots & Wings – Institute of Social and Emotional Learning for the Prevention of Trauma, a Malibu based organization serving schools and families with social emotional programs.
With a culturally diverse background, Estela is fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, French and English, which allows her to serve clients in cross-cultural contexts.
In all that she does, Estela strives to contribute to higher quality human relationships and a kinder and more compassionate global community.
Trauma, a Malibu based organization serving schools and families with social emotional programs.
With a culturally diverse background, Estela is fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, French and English, which allows her to serve clients in cross-cultural contexts.
In all that she does, Estela strives to contribute to higher quality human relationships and a kinder and more compassionate global community.